Birthdays, Big and Small
Two celebration menus + Spanish Garlic Shrimp + An Introduction to Priorat
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I turned 40 during the height of the pandemic. In Hong Kong, we caught a window where infections were in the single digits and restaurants were allowed to be open. While I celebrated with college friends having their own big birthdays over Zoom, for my birthday, my husband organized a proper party. Forty friends gathered in the cozy dining room of an Italian restaurant tucked at the top of a 30 story building in Wan Chai. We ate crispy fritto misto and truffle tagliatelle while playing silly quiz games about my life and listening to several heartfelt toasts. It was wonderful. One thing I think we learned during COVID, is that no amount of high-quality video streaming will ever replace being together, human to human.
Yet, COVID keeps reminding us it is not gone. One of our son’s best friends turned three a month ago. The day of the backyard barbecue the dad, mom and son all tested positive. The party would have to wait.
When Orion said he wanted to make a cake for his friend to celebrate anyway, I said yes immediately. Orion likes to flip through a cookbook, The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, given to me by my thoughtful Aussie friend, Tanya. First published in 1980, it is a treasure trove of weird and wonderful ideas on how to transform box cake mix and standard issue store candy into ducks and witches and rugby pitches.
With our friends recovered, we had them over one night this last week to celebrate, just the two families. The boys raced cars and colored and ran circles around the couch. We ate mac n’ cheese and steamed broccoli and ate cake. In the end when I asked Orion what kind of cake we should make for his friend he said, “A truck cake. Alex likes trucks so it should be a truck cake.” We used the gluten-free King Arthur Cake Mix (far superior to any Betty Crocker standard cake mix I’ve tried), colored some frosting blue to be the ocean, crushed graham crackers to make sand, and decorated the cake to look like the big truck construction project happening on our beach right now. It was wonderful.
Three-Year Old Birthday Menu for 6
Carrot Sticks and Hummus
Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Steamed Broccoli
Construction Truck Birthday Cake
My husband has a big birthday next week. For months now he has been ambivalent about how to celebrate. Rather than a big, blow out party, in the end, we decided on a few smaller dinners with close friends, and a trip to Italy later this year.
For our family birthday dinner with our boys, John suggested tapas night. This turned out to be the perfect joint cooking activity to bring together a toddler, a teenager and us grownups. We donned aprons, chopped and sautéed, between nibbles of Manchego and chorizo. The table filled with small plates, we sat down properly nosh while toasting the birthday boy.
Orion had been asking to make chocolate mousse for weeks, some manifestation of dessert longing from reading The Poky Little Puppy. Sticking a candle in a bowl of chocolate mousse seemed as decadent and special as cake. I dusted off an old recipe from my culinary school days and got the boys separating eggs while I melted chocolate. Ian, our teenager, whipped eggs whites with an electric mixer while Orion stood on a stool, mesmerized by the transformation of gloopy albumen to frothy bubbles to glossy meringue.
“Big Birthday” Tapas Menu for Six
Cheese board: Manchego, Chorizo, Nuts, Olives
Kale Salad
Gambas al Ajillo (Spanish Style Garlic Shrimp)
Sausage with Sherry Vinegar
Blistered Shishito Peppers
Crusty Bread
Classic Chocolate Mousse
In the end, we were all too full from the gambas al ajillo and sausage slicked in sherry vinegar to do much with the chocolate mousse that night besides sing For he’s a jolly good fellow and share a symbolic spoonful.
When my husband and I were still wavering over plans for his birthday, whether to go full 80’s party and taco truck or do nothing, a good friend reminded me that no matter what we should do something. “It is really important to recognize these occasions even if it’s small.” She was right, so we did. It was wonderful. (Happy Birthday, John!)
Recipe
Spanish Garlic Shrimp (Gambas al Ajillo)
This is a tapas portion. Serve it as part of a bigger spread. You can halve this recipe as well, if say, you are thinking of an intimate dinner for two for Valentine’s Day coming up.
8 garlic cloves
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. shrimp, shell off, deveined (get 1.5 lb. if shell on, then peel and devein)
Salt
Pepper
2 dried arbol chilies
1 tsp. Spanish smoked paprika
6 T. dry sherry, preferably amontillado
Peel garlic and thinly slice. Using a sauté pan large enough to fit the shrimp in a single layer, heat enough olive oil over medium heat to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer of oil, about ½ cup of oil. Add garlic to oil and sauté for 2 minutes until beginning to brown.
While garlic is cooking rinse shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Add chilies and shrimp to the pan with the garlic and spread out in a single layer. Let cook, untouched, for two minutes until the shrimp to curl and has turned pink on the bottom side. Sprinkle with the paprika and, using tongs, flip shrimp to the other side to continue cooking. After one minute, add the sherry. Bring back to a simmer and cook for one minute longer until shrimp is pink all over and cooked through. Give everything a good stir and serve in a warmed dish right on the table with some crusty bread.
To Drink…
Celler Pasanau Ceps Nous, Priorat, Spain 2019
Made from Garnacha vines growing at 2,400 feet of elevation at the base of the Sierra de Montsant in Priorat, this lush, full-bodied red is a great entryway for those looking to explore Spanish wines beyond Rioja. Sitting southwest of Barcelona, Priorat is a historic wine growing region, that went out of favor for a time and is now experiencing somewhat of a Renaissance. Wine makers from all over the world are being drawn to the extremely dry hills and cool, moisture trapping soil. Roots here must dig far into the rocky earthy to seek moisture, resulting in low yielding vines with intense concentration of fruit.
Thanks to a healthy dose of French and American oak, this Priorat from Pasanau has almost a New World style - wood spice and oak are balanced with a firm minerality the region is known for. Drink it out of a tumbler while you drag your baguette through the paprika spiced oil from the garlic shrimp and find yourself transported.
From $23 at Jimbo’s in San Diego or online here.
You can feel so much love for your boys in your words 🥰 Love that cookbook … the gift that keeps on giving 🎂
So wonderful to read about all the birthdays! Give some special love to Max from Max. Wishing him all good things ahead. ❤️💜🩵